Friday, January 20, 2012

Luxury watches are not just functional wristwear--they're works of art with hundreds of years of technology packed inside.

Consumers' tastes and shopping preferences for watches are evolving around the globe.

Market research company Digital Luxury Group has just released its annual report on the worldwide market for high-end watches, looking at 15 of the world's biggest haute timepiece brands ahead of Baselworld, the upcoming international watch and jewelry show in Switzerland.

The report is based on more than a billion consumer searches for luxury watches on search engines including Google, Bing and Baidu.

For the first time in 2011, demand for luxury watches was higher in the US than in China, based on internet search market share.

Within China, more than half of demand for luxury timepieces comes from first- and second-tier coastal cities with high-end shopping streets, like Beijing and Shanghai.

Heritage brands like Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin are more popular with traditional clients from Beijing, while IWC attracts a younger, trendier, urban audience.